especially in low wind, you'll need more training ....
i figured out that it's more effective to ride in a 'staircase ..' you go upwind till you feel that (because of the edging) your kite gets bad-tempered. rigt before you drop out of gliding, fly the kite up and drop to halfwind - riding. gather speed by dropping the kite and when you go fast enough start enging harder and go upwind.

this worked well with flysurfer kites
(don't fly them full powered all the time - if you depower, they fly faster)

Hi.
This is incredible... I have been kiting on the ice with skis starting last winter... but second time ever really planing on water, I got upwind with a ArX 19.5 with a 200 cm board without problems! After two hours, I found out the same things, keep the kite high enough not to dig the board too deep in to the water. Also, having to fly the kite for power will make getting upwind difficult. So, even the big ones seem to need some wind... I believe waves give some problems for getting upwind?
ItÃ‚Â´s unbeliviable how quickly the big kites hit you with so much power that you think that this is the end... 12 kts still ok for me and then 14 kts... goodbye. Scary...
- Nice site, have fun. Rgds, JR -

there are two more tips i know:
on a wake / twin twist your knees forward.
and: look into the direction you wanna go.

if you're riding towards the beach, toy around and try how hard you can go upwind - then find a point where you wanna get and look there when not looking @ kite or board.
and when riding out, find a rider who's riding in front of you and try to follow him / gain more height than him

this is helping mostly newbees on small boards, but may work for you guys too (if u didn't know this already)...

it is also important to find the sweet spot on your bar where the kite still flies fast enough and has power, and also the sweet spot of your board - the point where the edge lets you go upwind but does not brake too much ...

Apparent wind is not only created when you sine the kite but as you board speed increases the kite speed increases (it has to keep up with you) so more air moving over the kite generates more pull. This is also a part of apparent wind.

The secret of lightwind riding is to stay on a plane. To get on the plane initially requires a good long power stroke and normally results in you heading downwind. Once up on a plane the number one priority is to stay on that plane, this is where weight and board come into play. Heavy riders come off the plane sooner as do boards with a small plane area.

In order to stay on a plane you need speed, so during a lull as the board speed starts to reduce its better to raise the kite a bit point the board downwind more and get in a good power stroke to keep the boardspeed up. You will lose some ground downwind but you stay on a plane, when the lull passes ease the board to an upwind angle again. The trick is to point the board as far upwind as you can without losing speed, depending on your kite you may get better results by sheeting in/out during up and downstrokes whilst at the same time adjusting slightly the angle of the board.

Sometimes there will simply not be enough wind and you will end up downwind no matter what.

A good way to understand the effects of speed and apparent wind is to use your kite with a mountainboard in very lightwinds, you dont have to worry about staying on a plane and can experiment with board speed and angles to see the effect it has.

my experience is that the bigger the kite the harder to go upwind.
A smaller kite flies more to the edge of the window, so it is easier to go upwind with a 7.5 than a 15.5. The bigger kites have more cross forces, which pulls you more downwind.
And each time you have to move the kite, specially in light winds, you will loose height.